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Smith: A small town built on marble

Posted: Saturday, February 05, 2011

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TATE - Pink marble is still quarried in this section of the state, but it's nothing like it was in its heyday when more than a thousand people worked in the marble industry in this settlement in Pickens County.

"Today," says Mimi Jo Butler, a historian who lives nearby, "the number of people working in marble is probably more like a hundred." She finds that sad, remembering the day when there was robust activity with the local marble industry. Her father worked as the head designer for Georgia Marble Co. for 35 years.

Tate is unincorporated, but there was a time when it was the county seat of Cherokee County. In the early1800s, Cherokee County was a territory that covered most of Northwest Georgia, but big counties were eventually divided into smaller counties.

Originally, Tate was Harnageville, named for Ambrose Harnage. Next it was called "Marble Works." It later took the name Tate for the Tate family which had settled in the area before 1850.

It is easy to develop a fascination for small-town Georgia, but I don't suppose Tate qualifies as a town any longer. (Locals prefer that it be identified as a "village.") From the Internet I discovered that the population of Tate is 338 - 167 male and 171 female residents.

This was once the land of the Cherokees. That is how Cherokee County got its name, but there wasn't much good that came about when the Indians were entrenched here. During the American Revolution, the Indians sided with the British. They were to pay dearly for that decision. Gen. Albert Pickens destroyed villages with reckless abandon and made the Indians cede lands to him for aligning themselves with the British. According to historical accounts, Pickens didn't know it, but the Cherokees actually ceded land that belonged to the Creeks.

This area became something of a thoroughfare for Gen. Andrew Jackson and his troops as they headed south to battle the Seminoles in 1819. As bad as slavery was, it is difficult to imagine harsher treatment than that which our forefathers dished out to the Indians. To the land-grabbers, it was nothing to be bothered about, however. After all, to them, the Indians were simply savages and needed to move on. It was akin to kicking a defenseless dog off the front porch.

In 1834, Sam Tate (1797-1866) became the landowner here, and his descendants still own the rights to lands where Georgia marble is quarried.

William Tate, the revered dean of men at the University of Georgia for years, was a relative of Sam Tate. Bill Tate's family was from Fairmount, but he often referred to Tate, a community that he affectionately appreciated. The colorful dean, an aficionado of history of Georgia, was an unforgettable type who was in charge of discipline on the campus in Athens. However, there were countless times when he went out of the way to befriend Georgia students.

Passing this way and taking a curious look at the Tate House - also known as the Pink Palace, which was built by Sam Tate - stimulated recollections of the late Bill Tate.

Dean Tate was an athlete, running the mile with modest success in his days on campus. He always enjoyed telling the story about a Saturday when he won the mile race in a track meet hosted by Georgia Tech on Grant Field. His mother had brought several of her friends down from the mountains to see her son run.

The milers lit out with a burst of energy, and Tate led from the start, the voice over the loudspeaker frequently calling out, "William Tate of Georgia leading." He finished first, proud of his achievement in front of his mother and her friends. He then wandered up into the stands where his mother was in spirited conversation. Spying her son out of the corner of her eye, she took a break from her onrushing conversation, turned and said to her son, "William, when do you run?"